The 2011 demons were exorcised Saturday as Notre Dame didn’t let South Florida become a meme again this time around, blasting the Bulls 52-0.

There’s essentially nothing to dislike from today’s performance, so let’s talk about some of the best stuff we saw.

A stable of running backs

Standard “this opponent is bad” caveat applies; I never thought I’d see a team look more hopeless against ND than Bowling Green did last year, but these Bulls, Johnny Ward excepted, came close.

But that being said, this might be a pretty special group of Notre Dame running backs. We already saw how good Kyren Williams can be last week against Duke, and he was darn good in limited duty today. Chris Tyree certainly had some moments of his own, and he looked much better than last week (welcome to the TD club). Even beyond that, how about C’Bo Flemister? The tough-minded back impressed many in his cameo appearances last year, and today was, obviously, far and away his best performance as he went over 100 yards for the first time. Even Jafar Armstrong, apparently buried on the depth chart, did some cool stuff, chiefly running Angle Smash from the NCAA Football 14 playbook to perfection on a 3rd and long and getting a first down.

There have been rumblings out of ND all off-season that Tommy Rees wanted to be more run-focused than his predecessor Chip Long was. Today was a great example of why. To be a great team, it probably takes several running backs capable of ripping off studly performances on a given day. If nothing else, ND certainly has that.

#24

Jack Kiser was #3 on the LB depth chart when he went to bed Friday (at least officially – it seems hard to believe the news about Shayne Simon and Marist Liufau came out of nowhere. But I digress). By the time kickoff rolled around, Kiser was starting.

Holy crap was he good. The guy has a nose for the ball and won’t take no for an answer when tackling a ballcarrier. The best thing a team can have is good players being pushed for their jobs by other good ones. Kiser absolutely made some noise.

Kiser’s number buddy, Tommy Tremble, was fun to watch too. Perhaps Paul Burmeister and Tony Dungy overdid it a little bit in their love for Tremble’s blocking in the first half – YMMV – but he was burying dudes left and right. Hard not to like that. By all accounts he likes blocking even more than receiving. Not bad for a guy who last year didn’t look like he was remotely large enough to be playing tight end at a power program. By the way, Tremble was also ND’s leading receiver for the game, though that says as much about how many guys got in the game, and how content ND was to run the ball, as it does Tremble (or Ian Book, for that matter).

No 99-yard fumble returns for touchdowns, no lightning delays, and no panicked QB switches

I think this item basically speaks for itself. It felt like God was apologizing for the weather fiasco from nine years ago with the sky He ordered up on Saturday.

Brian Kelly being out for blood

I’m 100 percent here for more clips of Brian Kelly saying things like “We’re playing for a shutout!” and “I want to score every time we have the ball. I’m tired of being the nice guy!” Obviously those opportunities don’t come along that often – although I wouldn’t bet against a couple of more this season – but it was awesome to see that kind of attitude, and it’s easy to believe that that filtered down to the players in the way they were determined to protect the shutout in the second half. Bring that attitude to more challenging games and see what happens. Why not?

While we’re here, it was amusing to see South Florida have some special teams problems – is there no one on that team that can snap the ball to a punter? – and ND take full advantage. I’m sure Jeff Scott is a fine coach and will do a good job, but man, does he ever have an uphill battle in front of him.

ND’s most challenging opponent for a while might be COVID-19

Wake Forest lost their star quarterback. Florida State is still a mess. Louisville and Pittsburgh aren’t going to be easy, but ND is better than them. Georgia Tech is a team in transition.

The Irish have two truly tough opponents between now and Clemson’s visit – COVID-19 and complacency. Let’s not let either one get us.